


i'll be home for christmas

by JakeyFryMason011



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Emo Mike Wheeler, F/M, Sad with a Happy Ending, christmas 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 20:21:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17148476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakeyFryMason011/pseuds/JakeyFryMason011
Summary: Two Christmases: one without El, and one with.Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays all around.





	i'll be home for christmas

**1983**

"Are you feeling all right, Michael?" his mother asked, feeling his forehead.

"Fine," Mike mutters, pushing his Christmas breakfast around his plate. He's not really hungry.

Karen worries about her son. Ever since she found him at the school, he's been getting quieter and moodier. The teachers say he's been getting into trouble.

Still, with two other children and a deadbeat husband, it's difficult to worry too much, but she smiles at him in a motherly way, and he manages a quick, tight smile.

"Not hungry?" she asks him.

"Not really," he says.

"All right. Why don't you go upstairs until your father wakes up, and we'll open presents," she tells him, and he nods, but instead of going upstairs he goes to the basement.

Once he's down there and the door is shut, Mike collapses against the post, hand clapped over his eyes.

"Oh my god," he whispers. "Oh god, oh god." It's getting too hard to hold the tears back, so he lets them fall, dripping onto his fingers.

He climbs into the fort, fist crammed in his mouth to muffle the sobs.

It was the first time he'd cried since she died.

"El," he whispers, shoulders heaving, pressing the blanket to his face. "El, El--"

The walkie-talkie is to his lips. "El, i-it's Mike. I just--it's Christmas today, El, but I can't be happy. I can't. I just--I want you to come home. Come home, El." He wipes a tear from his eyes. "El, please, come home." It falls from his hands, and he curls himself up, beating against the ground.

Meanwhile, in Another Place, she's standing as tears of her own roll down her face as he lies helplessly at her feet, sobbing.

"Mike," she sobs silently. "Oh, Mike. Sorry. I'm sorry."

There's nothing she can really do.

"Michael?" his mother calls. "Your father is awake."

Mike forces himself to be calm, wiping his eyes. "Coming!" he says in a fake-cheery voice.

Time to go force a smile.

Again.

He could get the nicest presents a kid ever got, but all he really wants to see under the wrapping paper is El, smiling and reaching for his hand.

* * *

**1984**

The cabin door knocks. Hopper sighs, his nostrils ruffling his beard, and he reluctantly gets up.

He's been dreading this day for a while, but it's Christmas, and, well, what other choice does he have?

"Hey, kids," he mutters, wrenching it open, and five kids plus a very rumpled Steve Harrington spill into the cabin.

"Bah humbug to you too," Max says, the real smartass, and his glare does nothing on her. She just scoffs, noting his red-and-green pajamas Joyce bought him. They might look ridiculous, but hey, they're _comfortable._

"Where is she?" Mike demands, already too eager, looking around.

"Hi, Mike."

Her voice is quiet, but it spreads smoothly over the argument that Lucas and Dustin are loudly having, and they shut up immediately. waving with the rest of them.

"El," Mike breathes, beaming at her. "Hey. U-um, we're here."

"I can see," she says, the corner of her mouth twitching upwards. "And hear."

"Sassy, this one," Max says approvingly. Hopper eyes her, because if she's the one that taught El to have such a mouth then they'll never find the body.

Hopper's eyes meet Steve's, and they both share a look as comrades enduring five and now six excitable teenagers.

The others surge forward to give El her presents, and she accepts them, grinning widely. She looks elated, practically glowing.

"I didn't get you anything," she says softly, and Mike smiles, touching her arm gently. "It's all right, El."

"Yeah, it's totally cool!" Dustin says. "Really!"

Hopper goes to hide in his own room with a mug of coffee and a book, so the others spread out in the cabin, lounging in chairs as El makes them hot chocolate.

El looks around at the others as she sits next to Mike, smiling softly.

Lucas and Dustin have resumed their argument as to whether or not The Hobbit could be considered necessary to the original trilogy, and are bickering loudly, waving their arms animatedly. Max smirks at them from the couch, holding Lucas's hand. Will sits next to her, looking at peace for the longest time in a while, laughing along with her at their antics.

"Home," she whispers.

"What?" Mike asks her, looking at her.

"Home," she says. "This is...home."

"It really is, El," Mike says, his face tantalizingly close to hers. El decides it's not close enough, and she leans forward and kisses him sweetly.

Not even the others shouting "Gross!" and "Get a room!" can ruin the moment.

Mike likes this Christmas a lot more than last year.

 

_And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say_

_That the Grinch's cold heart grew three sizes that day._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays to everybody out there. May your days be merry and bright and all that jazz.


End file.
